A political animal

By Creature

***UPDATED BELOW***

Fine, I'll talk about Hillary too. Politically and conventionally speaking, today's web announcement was brilliant. This soft, fuzzy, middle-of-the-road conversation starter made it clear that Hillary is on top of her political game. She struck a populist theme, she appealed to the Oprah voter (a class of voter she desperately needs to recapture from Obama*), she appealed to the Internets with her three day chat and faux YouTube video, she bashed Bush, embraced health care, and she's had positive news coverage all day and will probably continue to enjoy positive coverage into the week, maybe even stealing a bit of Bush's thunder on Tuesday.

Putting my numerous and almost insurmountable issues with Hillary aside, I must say, this was a smart, strong start to her campaign. I credit Peter Daou.

Watch the announcement for yourself.

* Still, though, how pissed must Hillary be that Obama has forced her to run that much harder?

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)

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UPDATE: Can't get enough Hillary today? There's been, needless to say, a lot of reaction in the blogosphere, and you can find what you're looking for at Memeorandum.

A few recommended posts: The Carpetbagger Report, Political Animal, Pandagon, Booman Tribune, The News Blog, Taylor Marsh, The Heretik, The Democratic Daily, Bob Geiger, Liberal Values, Seeing the Forest, and Outside the Beltway.

And go see our new co-blogger Libby Spencer at The Impolitic.

For coverage in the MSM, see The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and the AP, as well as the BBC and The Times.

-- MJWS